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Felony Drug Arrests Rise to New Record

Pennington County law enforcement is also working hard rounding up drug pushers and users. According to a Wednesday post, felony drug arrests are up 4% from last year’s record numbers:

Pennington County Sheriff's Office, Facebook post on felony drug arrests, 2019.07.10.
Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, Facebook post, 2019.07.10.

Boy, Attorney General Ravnsborg better hurry up and build that meth prison he promised… if he can find blueprints for one.

7 Comments

  1. Porter Lansing

    Alcohol is the most abused drug in ANY county. It’s the gateway to meth and pain pills.

  2. Debbo

    Is there any breakdown on which drugs the arrests are for? Curious about how many are for weed. Also, how many are users v. dealers?

    In other words, are these increased arrests getting at the root of the serious problems of heroin and meth and prescription painkillers? Or is it just feel good numbers?

  3. Debbo

    Does Pennington County have a system for monitoring doctors prescribing habits? Is there coordination so that addicts cannot doctor shop? What about pharmacies? Is there a central system for them?

  4. Porter Lansing

    I know it’s not RC but in Watertown the city cops will have a spotter on one I-29 overpass and another cop up the road and pull over and search any brown skinned person. They invent some excuse for the search. Every Monday they have a section in the paper called This Week In Drug Arrests. It’s mostly pot possession and urinalysis with about $3000 an arrest in unconstitutional fines levied but they probably plant meth on some of them.

  5. Jenny

    Can one get a felony for possession of marijuana in South Dakota?

  6. Ryan

    Alcohol is absolutely the most destructive recreational drug in the country, but it is not a gateway to anything. Most people who drink never try anything “harder” just like most people who smoke weed never do, either. The gateway idea is an unfortunately strong and popular myth despite the number of times it’s been proven incorrect.

    Also, I’m very skeptical of porter’s suggestion that any “brown skinned” person driving by Watertown will be unconstitutionally seized and searched… but hey, it’s fun to make things up for semi anonymous online attention when attention is lacking elsewhere.

  7. Dana P

    The neighborhood I live in was a victim of meth and meth related crime. (Pennington County) It was terrible. It was like living next to an all-night mini-mart. Verified criminals were “invading” our neighborhood.

    Because meth is so prolific, our sheriff’s department couldn’t address it right away. We got put on a waiting list, for lack of better words. In speaking with the the detective on the drug task force that I worked hand in hand with, “we will do what we can do, but I have to be honest. We are overwhelmed with meth right now. You are on our list, though”. Our neighborhood had to take matters in our own hands to problem solve and make these meth addicts uncomfortable, which we did, and they have now moved on and we have our neighborhood back.

    That being said — yeah, a “meth prison” won’t work. It’s about addressing root causes and verified counseling/in-depth therapy. The reason meth is different? The hardest drug to kick. The success rates are minimal.

    A meth prison is great for political campaigning. As Jason R knows and knew. It would be like throwing good money after bad. If all you have is a hammer, you see every problem as a nail.

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